The greenhouse managers have a 5 week rotation system, plus they offer open potting
at least once a week. The 5 managers spend 1 week on each task: watering,
weeding/pruning, sickbay, cleaning, and an off-week. During the off-week you
are not required to do any specific tasks in the greenhouse, but you are still
free to come in and help on your own. The managers are encouraged to frequently
check the greenhouse webmail account to answer any emails they can (see Darcy L. Blankenhorn for the password).
The 4 jobs and open potting are each explained in some detail below. Each
guideline gives an approximation of how long each job should take; however, you
are always free to spend more time working.

Watering

Days per
week: Daily

Hours per
week: 3-7 (about 40-60 minutes a day)

It is your job to water each individual plant as needed. If it is a hot
day, you may need to come twice a day to mist dryer areas. Not every plant
needs to be watered daily. Consistent over-watering is just as bad as
under-watering. As a general rule, a plant should be watered if the soil
is dry about one inch below the surface (to about your first knuckle).
Yes, this means that you MUST determine soil dampness by sticking your finger in
the soil until you learn each plant's watering patterns. If you over-water
the plants they will rot, drown, etc.. Any plant growing moss or mold on the
surface of the soil is being watered too much unless this plant loves water (ex.
Peace Lily and Wandering
Jew). The person on watering is responsible
for the following rooms: main, student room, and cactus room. You
are not responsible for sick bay or the student research room unless
specifically asked/requested by a faculty member. Both the cactus and the
orchid beds need to be misted once a day. DO NOT over water these
plants. There are hoses located in each room of the greenhouse. After use, be
sure to relieve the pressure in the hose and move out of the way to prevent
tripping. At the end of the week, you are responsible for lightly
fertilizing plants in the greenhouse. This is a task that can go quickly
with a group of managers during open potting.

NOTE:
Please water carefully so that soil does not fly out of the pots and onto the
floor. This makes the cleaning job more difficult. To help prevent
this, pot plants with soil 1-2 inches (depending on size of pot) from the pot's
rim.

Cleaning

Days per
week: 2-3

Hours per
week: 2-3 (very flexible)

Cleaning is the one job that does not deal with plants. You are expecting to
clean the greenhouse and adjacent areas, including the student research room,
but excluding sickbay. Here is an example of several tasks that should done in
order of importance:

Scoop
out the drains at the end of the week

Wash the
pots in the “used pots” bucket, do not allow dirt to go down the drain

Put away
dried pots

Sweep
the floor of both the potting room and the greenhouse

Pickup
any fallen leaves

Wipe
down the potting tables

Kill
mold/mildew growing on the greenhouse floor, bleach and soap usually work

Dispose
of dead plants from collection

Organize
the potting room

Clean up
the deck

Anything
else you can think of to clean up

It is not
necessary to complete all these tasks. Sometimes the greenhouse stays
fairly clean and requires little maintenance. The ease of the job is
dependent on the person who worked the week before you. Please be
courteous and do not all the work to pile up on one person. It is most
important that you do the first 4 items and everyone will be happy. Cleaning is
one of the most flexible jobs in the greenhouse.

NOTE: The person on
watering can make your job more difficult as well. Carelessness in
watering can cause soil to spill out of the pots and onto the floor.
However, some soil may also be from the drainage holes in the pot.

Weeding and Pruning

Days per
week: 2-3

Hours per
week: 2-3 (flexible)

Grab an extra pot (to dispose of weeds
and pruned leaves as you move along) and a pair of clippers to begin your job.
Ideally you should visit each pot in the collection at least once to check each
plant for signs of sickness/infestation (move to the sickbay doors, but do not
enter sickbay), weeds (make sure to remove the roots too), dead/dying leaves or
flowers (remove with clippers). Moss can be left unless it is creating a
problem, i.e. competing with host plant, harboring bugs, etc. Be careful not to
pull out offshoots while pulling out weeds. These extra offshoots can be
repotted during open-potting if they begin to crowd the pot. When pruning dead
leaves, remove the entire leaf down to the stem/branch. If a leaf is just
browning at the edges or at the tip, cut off the browning or dead areas, leaving
the rest of the leaf alone. When removing part of a branch, cut it off
right above the next good looking leaf or branch. When removing the entire
stem, cut it all the way to the stem. Once you have done everything you
can to make the plant look its best, you should move on to the next plant.

It is best to examine all plants during
you week, but if you fall short of the mark, be sure to email the person weeding
next so that she/he will know where to start.

Sick
Bay

Days per week: Daily

Hours per
week: 4-9

When you are assigned to sick bay for the week, you are
assigned to cleaning, watering, pruning, weeding, and caring for all plants in
this small room. Your job is to care for the diseased or infested plants by
tending to all their basic needs, and ridding them of their diseases or pests.
Do NOT fertilize sick bay, this makes pest problems much worse.

Upon entering sick bay, for the first time in your week, take note of the white
board in the corner, each plant is numbered and accounted for on the board. The
color implies the problem the plant has, date of its last treatment, and a check
mark next to the date for each weeks it has been clean of bugs or healthy.
In some cases special directions will be posted for certain plants. Those
directions supersede what is outlined here. Other information on the board
includes the last date that sick bay was sulfur sprayed, cleaned, weeded/pruned,
and pepper sprayed. Every time you complete any of these tasks or clean any
plant, mark down what you did on the white board. Since every manager is only
in sick bay once every 5 weeks, communication is the key to stopping
infestations and disease.

NOTE:
After spending time in sick bay, check your clothes for bugs and leave the
greenhouse quickly without touching any other plants. This helps to
prevent spreading the problem to healthy plants. Also, the door to sick
bay must always remain closed and locked.

Periodically through your week you might find plants outside the door to sick
bay. Since other managers are not allowed in sick bay when it is not their
week, you must take care of these plants. First, take it into sick bay and
decide what this plant suffers from. Then assign it an appropriate number and
table, and treat it on the spot.

NOTE:
Many bugs prefer to live in flowers so those should be pruned upon arrival in
sickbay.

Chemicals used in sickbay can be very
caustic, please wear gloves. Wearing protective eye gear and/or a lab coat is
also recommended if you feel uncomfortable. Some greenhouse managers opt to
wear special sick bay clothes, but this is not necessary. When inventory (i.e.
gloves, alcohol, cotton balls, etc.) in sickbay runs low you are responsible for
finding Darcy in the biology department and obtaining new supplies.

At the end of your week be sure to take
out the trash and clean the drains. At this time be sure you remember to check
mark any plants that showed no sings of disease or infestation during the week.
Look at plants that have 3 check marks already, if you also saw no signs of
infestation during the week, the plant gets a 4th check mark and can thus be
placed back in the collection. When placing healthy plants back in the
collection, erase their information from the white board and return the red tag
to the cup of tags.

Open Potting

Days per
week: 1

Hours per
week: 1-2 as a group Friday afternoon

Open potting is a time for the entire Kenyon College community to come in the
greenhouse to buy plants, ask questions, repot plants, and generally have a time
when they know a greenhouse manager will be around to help with any botanical
concerns. Each week, open potting is held once from 3:30-4:30/5. One
greenhouse manager volunteers to head up open potting for the year. It is this
managers responsibility to send out the open potting email to the students and
faculty, come early to open potting to ensure early arrivals will be tended to,
and set up anything that needs to be done before open potting begins.
Afterwards, this manager cleans up and is usually the last to leave after open
potting ends. If this manager is not able to host open potting on a particular
Friday, it is their responsibility to find another manager to cover.

Anyone that comes to open potting should be treated in a friendly manner.
Their needs should be taken care of as the highest priority. Place aside
anything else you are doing as soon as possible to help a visitor.
However, there are often very few people who show up to open potting and large
projects tend to be accomplished during this time. This is also a great time to
catch up with other managers and to make plans for the greenhouse. Some tasks
that might be tackled during an open potting session are organizing the potting
room, rearranging the collection, repotting plants, planting seeds, replenishing
the plant sale table, fertilizing, or anything else that needs to be done.

All the managers are not required to come to open potting, but it is nice if you
can make it. Open potting is generally very relaxed and just a fun way to spend
a Friday afternoon. This is a wonderful time to do any pet projects a manager
might have or to learn tricks other managers have when working in the
greenhouse.